Cornell IFC Creates “MTV Cribs” Videos For Fraternity Houses

I remember watching MTV Cribs growing up and marveling at the amazing homes and cars of athletes, actors, and musicians. Whether it was a fishtank that served as an entire wall, a garage full of Ferraris, or any other outrageous aspect, Cribs gave us some insight into how our favorite celebrities lived, and for a split second almost redeemed MTV as a channel before it was buried forever under waves of stupidity.

Cornell, the public school that everyone waitlisted at Harvard attends, decided to up its fraternity rush game with a throwback to Cribs using fraternities. In a dual project between Cornell’s IFC and Slope Media, each house will be featured in two-minute IFC videos dubbed “IFC Cribs,” meant for freshmen considering rushing. To keep things fair, the videos will showcase the “exterior of a house, one common area, the dining area, one typical bedroom and one or two distinctive features of the house.” Additionally, offering either the potential for hilarity or a series of Fail Friday appearances, a “member of each fraternity will serve as a host of the house throughout the video, similar to MTV’s Cribs.”

On the surface, I think it’s a pretty sweet idea and potentially a great recruitment tool. Still, freshmen should be cautious. Freshmen, don’t pick which fraternity to rush based on how their house looks. While a house unfit for parties is a definite downer, there should be a lot of other factors involved in your decision. Also, you’re not going to get the great insight into fraternity life that the videos claim to offer. No one is going to get wild on camera and risk catching heat from the university; people are either going to be sitting around watching TV with a fat lip in or trying way too hard to look “frat.”

If nothing else, to you freshmen at Cornell, I would recommend watching every video with specific details in mind: how easy does this house look to clean? How easy would it be for the brothers to trash it? How horrific is the basement?

Ultimately, these are the factors that will matter to you most as a pledge.

I go to Cornell, and the administration has been attempting to make it harder and harder for fraternities to have good parties. So we all just go to bars underage and have closed events. A+ job at encouraging safe drinking, administration.

SAE, TEP, ZBT, Phi Sig, Pike and ATO. Phi Sig was only off for a semester and are back now. Pike was off for a few years and are recolonizing. The other four will be off for another few years. Countless other fraternities have received social and disciplinary probations for stupid shit that’s mostly hearsay and the ruling is always against the fraternity. The administration has been cracking down because of negative press regarding an incident where an SAE brother died, and as a result, Greek life has become a witch hunt.